Make Lemons... » smartrip

WMATA’s Latest Embarrassment…

michelle — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 11:13:34 +0000

Last week was a banner one for WMATA….

Trash fire that closed down Gallery Place and Metro Center for a period of time.

A fire truck collided with a metrobus.… around the same time.

And the crowning jewel…. that came out DURING a WMATA Board meeting….. the maker of the SmarTrip cards will no longer sell them to WMATA, they only have enough left to get thru 2012, and oh yeah…. WMATA is over paying for them anyway!

How does this happen? Is ANYONE at WMATA in charge or accountable for anything that goes on there?? Do they have calendars? Access to the internet in order to do research? It’s like everything WMATA touches turns to crap!

If SmarTrip cards will only last until 2012, WMATA needs to abandon all SmarTrip changes that they had planned. Remember the “buckets” that were supposed to debut earlier this year? No need to waste time trying to code those changes. WMATA needs to hire a real project manager, and some people that can think outside the box. Maybe its time to re-do the entire fare and fare gate structure (ie get rid of the exit fare). Treat this like a REAL project. PLAN. Don’t just get an idea and run with it …. without doing some research.

WMATA has 2 years (well maybe 1.5 years)… Will they be able to find a solution AND get it implemented? Probably not. According to an article from this morning’s Baltimore Sun……. it took the MTA about 10 years to get their version of SmarTrip implemented. The CharmCard debuts this week.

My opinion ….. Let me pay for WMATA with my Starbucks Card.

Baby steps….

michelle — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 19:34:13 +0000

Today WMATA introduced what can only be seen as the first step to be able to finally add value to your SmarTrip card online.

Be warned… it is tedious. They want a lot of information and once registered you can only see your balance or report the card lost or stolen.

Did you previously register your card to protect the value? Make sure you remember the Phone Number and Zip Code you registered with…..

Next up… Fines for Seat hoggers?

Maybe SmarTrip should get Starbucks to handle their web development??

michelle — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 20:50:00 +0000

About a year ago Starbucks introduced a new rewards program…. of the type where you pay $25 for a years membership and you get a percentage off each purchase, plus free stuff. If you go there nearly everyday like me… its totally worth it (maybe not worth it for Starbucks… they discontinued it) Now there is a Gold Rewards program… Starbucks went ahead and moved everyone in the old program to the new card, and mailed out new cards! Fancy!!

Here’s the part that WMATA could learn from… the Starbucks website lets you manage your account online… You can add multiple cards, setup auto-reload where you can reload based on a date or when your balance hits a certain amount. You can transfer balances between cards (ie if you ever lost a card…. just transfer to another card that you have).

If you have ever registered your SmarTrip card with WMATA it appears to go into this big abyss…..where you can’t search on it or pull it up again.

Maybe WMATA and Starbucks could go into business together?? I see enough people drinking coffee on the Metro in the AM anyway…. pay for commuting and coffee with the same card!!

WMATA vs Driving

michelle — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 13:12:00 +0000

Yesterday I had the opportunity to work some overtime (aka bill extra hours aka buy more shoes!).

Orange line was of course single tracking (hey its the weekend!). So I decided to drive to my office. Mapquest put it at an approximate 20 minute drive. Metro usually takes me 30 Minutes. With the waiting around for single tracking trains driving of course won out. Weekend street parking was free. This all probably sounds like driving should win….. but I can’t read while I am driving….In bound traffic would be way worse during the week….and if I wanted to go out after work I would need to move my car somewhere. Also the big downside to driving…. getting from SW to 295N. Its weird and annoying.

WMATA wins!!!!!!!

But the real question is… if I had used Metro to commute this weekend, and SmarTrip had converted to the new system… what purse would my fare have been deducted from!?

SmarTrip Card….. not so smart

michelle — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:51:00 +0000

I have officially been commuting 100% using SmarTrip as my means of fare payment for the last 5 days (2 days last week I used my SmarTrip for bus, and Monthly MARC pass for rail).

I must admit I like the ease of use…. just tap the card to the SmarTrip reader, no need to even take it out of the case I use to carry it in.

But….. shortly after I got the SmarTrip card I registered it online. Now I want to update the mailing address, and check the balance. but you can’t do that online. You need to call the SmartTrip people. Why??? If I can register my Starbucks card and reload it online I should be able to do these easy transactions for my SmarTrip card. Why does WMATA make it sooooo hard???

The Silver SmarTrip saga continues!!!!

michelle — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:37:00 +0000

I was checking my online account this am….$4.25 was deducted for parking…. If I had used the SmarTrip card it would have been $8.25….

what a waste of money for the SmartTrip card. Oh well now I know…

Lesson Learned Metro and SmarTrip suck!!

No, it really was silver…

michelle — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 11:23:00 +0000

So on my way home yesterday I checked my SmarTrip Card balance using one of the farecard readers….

Balance of $6.75. So the problem from Thursday wasn’t a demagnetized card or any other card problem. It was that the technology SmarTrip uses isn’t advanced enough to tell me that my balance was too low…. I only got a generic Card Error message!

YAY!

Maybe not so silver after all….

michelle — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:53:00 +0000

so I drove to New Carrollton and tried to pay for my parking after happy hour, with my newly purchased SmarTrip card… Denied! i had to pay with a credit card

It’s probably demagnetized

Silver Lining after all!

michelle — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:11:00 +0000

Since I drove to New Carrollton this morning instead of taking the MARC, I had to buy a SmartTrip Card in order to get out of the garage! So this afternoon I get to New Carrollton and and proceed to try and buy my SmartTrip card. As I exit the fare gate I cross the way to the row of pass/farecards and farecards machines. I figured Pass = SmartTrip card and proceed to enter my cash. Um no…. luckily I didn’t purchase it. I look around thinking I am going to need to ask for help station managers are all tied up with tourists trying to get kids through the fare gates correctly!

Then I notice 2 machines over by the ATMs… mosey over. yep SmartTrip . and they only deal in $10! I need $13.25 ( 5 base for the card and $8.25 (according to wmata.com) to pay for parking), so I purchase my card and wait for a receipt… no receipt comes out, keep hitting # nothing. Then I think maybe it wants my PIN, so I try that… nope…then I decide well I need to go back to the other machines and load up some more money and I can check if it has the $5 fare. It did … I add $10 more and off I go! (and actually only $6.25 was deducted for parking)

The drive home was actually pretty good… so now I guess it is good that I have the SmarTrip card so when I go to happy hour in DC, I won’t need to wait for a MARC late in the evening ( after 6:30/7pm… they only run about 1 per hour so it really sucks if you miss the train you are aiming for)… I can just drive in!

MARC service suspended!

michelle — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:59:00 +0000

So I woke up this morning, got ready and planned on taking a train that leaves 20 minutes later than what I normally take. As I was ready to head out I checked my BlackBerry and found an email from the MTA that PENN line service was suspended due to a fatality. So off I went to New Carrollton. Traffic was not bad and I actually made good time (I arrived before I would have if I had taken the later MARC train I was aiming for)…

This explains why a helicopter was hovering over the station.

PENN service has resumed.

I can’t wait to see how much its costs me to park! ( I don’t have a SmarTrip card because my monthly MARC pass includes unlimited Metro trips)